Years ago, I taught in
The homemade ethnic food was lovely, the two young people
very gracious, basically complimenting me on my erudition and on not being from
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Wednesday, October 31
Being taught about Iran by my students in Arkansas
by
margieburns
on Wed 31 Oct 2007 03:22 PM EDT
A very important hearing on Iran
by
margieburns
on Wed 31 Oct 2007 08:48 AM EDT
Saturday, October 27
Joe Klein is not Calvin Klein
by
margieburns
on Sat 27 Oct 2007 10:37 AM EDT
This country is still
dominated by Vaudeville. The reminder popped up again, as I was going through
some old files to do cleanup and ran across some comments I had recorded after
I finally got around to reading Joe Klein’s Primary
Colors. Convenient racial, sexual, and regional stereotypes populate Klein’s
cartoonish ‘southern’ landscape. Even
among its other rigidities, however, the novel's rather old-fashioned misogyny stands
out, particularly in the way Klein details the physical imperfections of women
around the nation. Here is a very young girl from an African-American blue-collar family
in Thursday, October 25
NBC comes up with 'rules' to exclude Mike Gravel from debate
by
margieburns
on Thu 25 Oct 2007 03:36 PM EDT
I'm on Mike Gravel's side on this one. NBC listed as its reasons for shutting out Gravel that he has not campaigned in Iowa and New Hampshire 14 times, that he has not raised a certain amount of money, and that he has not broken 5 percent in the polls. The first is false, the second should be illegal, and the third applies to candidates besides Gravel.
" Why NBC and the DNC Want Me Out of the Debates," by Sen. Mike Gravel "In the past year, I have attended 11 national Democratic debates of which two were sponsored by ... more »
Running out the clock against Oversight
by
margieburns
on Thu 25 Oct 2007 11:40 AM EDT
Secretary of State is 'testifying' right now before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on corruption in Iraq. The dynamic is exactly what it usually is, in these hearings. Rice herself seems averse to answering any question with a direct yes or no, even given ample time to modify the initial answer. Her standard lead-ins are "Well, let me first just say . . ." or "I would like first just to say . . .," etc, even in response to questions where a clear statement supporting the basic principle would serve her and even her administration better. But ... more »
Tuesday, October 23
"Panties for Peace"
by
margieburns
on Tue 23 Oct 2007 05:29 PM EDT
“BANGKOK:
Women in several countries have begun sending their panties to Myanmar
embassies in a culturally insulting gesture of protest against the recent
brutal crackdown there, a campaign supporter said on Friday. Monday, October 22
More from, or not from? Blackwater. Waxman writes the company about evidence of tax evasion
by
margieburns
on Mon 22 Oct 2007 10:49 AM EDT
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, has sent a further letter to security contractor Blackwater concerning what the Committee calls evidence of tax evasion by the company. Here are the letter and accompanying memo:
"New documents suggest that Blackwater has engaged in significant tax evasion, failing to withhold and pay millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and related taxes, and sought to conceal its conduct from Congress and law enforcement officials. In a letter to Eric Prince, the Chairman of the Prince Group, which owns Blackwater, Chairman Waxman writes: I have received ... more »
Former CIA officer Larry Johnson, on how the White House and the CIA failed to protect Valerie Plame after a foreign threat against her life
by
margieburns
on Mon 22 Oct 2007 08:00 AM EDT
The pertinent information keeps getting worse and worse, the history more and more unconscionable. Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA officer who was a classmate of Valerie Plame's at Langley, has the following, posted in its entirety, unedited:
"Valerie Plame Wilson and the Ultimate Betrayal By Larry Johnson on October 21, 2007 at 8:50 PM in Current Affairs | Edit Valerie’s problem is her decency and humanity. She has reasons most Americans don’t know to be really angry with George Bush and George Tenet but she has contained her rage. In a new tasty nugget in her book, Fair Game... more » Saturday, October 20
President Bush 'joking' over missing WMD, synthetic outrage over Pete Stark's true remarks
by
margieburns
on Sat 20 Oct 2007 04:03 PM EDT
Here is the video clip showing the indescribable outrage of GWBush pretend-hunting for WMD in Iraq, in the White House: What a kidder. Children dying, young people turned into a nightmare of mayhem, parents lost, millions of helpless civilians uprooted, their petroleum reserves prey to the world, Iraqi infrastructure blasted, cultural antiquities looted, and here is Mr. Bush: on March 24, 2004:
At the time, over 500 American soldiers had already died: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKX6luiMINQ more » Thursday, October 18
Good for Chris Dodd
by
margieburns
on Thu 18 Oct 2007 06:27 PM EDT
Kudos to Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) for doing what had
to be done: he put a
hold on the administration’s telecommunications bill, that is, the
legislation immunizing telecommunications corporations from lawsuits for their participation even in illegal government surveillance programs. Dodd’s campaign web site
posted the following statement: “Today Senator Dodd will send
a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid informing him that he will be placing a
hold on FISA legislation that includes amnesty for telecommunications companies
who enabled the President's assault on the Constitution by providing personal
information on their customers without judicial authorization. Take action ... more » Wednesday, October 17
Calling all bloggers: Are you ‘covered’ under House ‘reporter’s shield law’?
by
margieburns
on Wed 17 Oct 2007 09:39 AM EDT
Yesterday the House passed by a substantial margin its
version of the “reporter’s shield law,” titled the Free
Flow of Information Act of 2007. The House version differs from the Senate
bill of the same title in its definition of “covered person,” basically the
definition of who is a journalist. The Senate
version reads, “(2) COVERED PERSON- The term `covered person' means a
person who is engaged in journalism and includes a supervisor, employer,
parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of such person.” The House version expands on this significantly: “(2) COVERED PERSON- The term `covered person' means a person who ... more » Saturday, October 13
Nobel Peace Prize and FEC Filings
by
margieburns
on Sat 13 Oct 2007 10:48 AM EDT
Yesterday brought the excellent news that Al Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, sharing the honor with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Gore issued a formal statement: “I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis--a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, ... more » Tuesday, October 9
Republicans debate in Dearborn: “Your Money Your Vote special,” CNBC calls it
by
margieburns
on Tue 09 Oct 2007 07:34 PM EDT
The GOP candidates for the White House held a CNBC-hosted debate presentation in
To improve the situation in Iraq, release the women from prison
by
margieburns
on Tue 09 Oct 2007 02:06 AM EDT
The only bright spot in the Iraq war, within Iraq, is that it's so bad that any modest step in the direction of human rights or even common sense would be an improvement. If the U.S. forces or "diplomatic" corps in Baghdad want to help that city, they might try visiting the jails and releasing Sunni women and other Iraqi women to their families.
In yet another ghastly sign of the horror that invading Iraq has unleashed on the helpless Iraqis, many women are among the prisoners held without charges in Iraqi prisons. At a time when the decimated Iraqi ... more » Sunday, October 7
How can Dems complain about "unfunded mandates" and keep funding the Iraq war?
by
margieburns
on Sun 07 Oct 2007 09:44 AM EDT
If public opinion of the way the war in Iraq is going drops much farther in the polls, I wouldn't give much for the odds of Fox News' staying on board. Case in point: at this writing Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday is 'interviewing' Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Not much new there, except that Wallace has asked a few disconcerting questions, and maybe MAYBE not just because Pelosi is a Democrat and Majority Leader.
Wallace asked for example why Pelosi thinks Congress is ranking so low in the opinion polls. When Pelosi rightly pointed out that the public hoped a ... more » Wednesday, October 3
Ron Paul ties John McCain in fundraising
by
margieburns
on Wed 03 Oct 2007 03:21 PM EDT
No shock, really: Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has announced that he has
raised over $5 million in third-quarter fundraising, historically the sluggish
quarter. The number puts him in serious money territory, especially given the
condition of the Republicans over-all.
Appropriately for this ridiculous horse-race treatment of an
‘election’ without votes happening a year too early, the
gambling realm has assigned Paul a better bettor’s chance of winning the
nomination than McCain. McCain is the good choice for those Republicans determined
to support the
Bush administration helped Iranian hardliner get elected: repost
by
margieburns
on Wed 03 Oct 2007 08:33 AM EDT
The more things change, the more they stay the same for demented admin policy makers who want to gin up another war, or rather to engulf the entire Middle East and the world's billion Muslims in the "global war" of their bigoted, bloodthirsty and cowardly imagining. This was posted more than a year ago and is regrettably current today:
Tuesday, October 2
"Welcome to the new U.S. embassy": This is what Blackwater guards
by
margieburns
on Tue 02 Oct 2007 03:45 PM EDT
Doing security and protection work for the State Department, Blackwater is among forces guarding the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Did anyone predict, back when George Walker Bush was running for the highest office in America back in 1999 and 2000, that he would be responsible for erecting the biggest American embassy in the world -- in Iraq?
Here is a partial description, from Martin Fletcher of Time, "Welcome to the new U.S. embassy": " Baghdad is a city of ruins - of burnt-out homes, of shops wrecked by suicide bombs, of the crumbling shells of Saddam-era palaces and ... more » Monday, October 1
Waxman's Committee to Hold Hearing on Private Contractors in Iraq Tomorrow
by
margieburns
on Mon 01 Oct 2007 03:05 PM EDT
This isn't the first time the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee has held a hearing on contracting abuses in Iraq, but this one, October 2, could hardly be more timely. The hearing will deal largely with private security contractor Blackwater, following up on "new questions about Blackwater" forwarded by the Committee.
From the Committee statement: "Previously undisclosed information reveals (1) Blackwater has engaged in 195 “escalation of force” incidents since 2005, an average of 1.4 per week, including over 160 incidents in which Blackwater forces fired first; (2) after a drunken Blackwater contractor shot the guard of the ... more » |
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